Differences between Drupal 7 and Drupal 8

By Lucid Softech IT Solutions | Drupal, Drupal 8,  14 Mar 2019

We all know that Drupal is one of the most flexible, reliable and secure content management system. Despite being open source, its feature set and module will give you freedom to create websites from simple to complex level.

Drupal 7 was launched in 2011 few features but in a very less time frame it’s became popular due to its community members and developers effort. There is no doubt that community of Drupal is very strong and they keep working to make it stronger and secure. And in response to their efforts Drupal 8 was launched in 2015. In Drupal 8 there are many changes incorporated in terms of design, core modules, performance etc.

With this blog we want to show you some major differences between Drupal 7 and Drupal 8 which with help you to choose the best option for your project.

Let’s Start.

1. Framework: If we will talk about Drupal, it does not have any powerful frameworks and basic Php framework is getting used. But in Drupal 8, Symphony framework is introduced which makes this most powerful and secure. Its MVC architecture helps to maintain and re-usability of code.

2. Modules: If you have used Drupal 7 then you will be fully aware that it was required to install View and Views UI module to start working with VIEWS and that’s why in Drupal 7 you need to install Views module manually. In Drupal 8, you will get Views and Views UI in code list. So you don’t need to install that module.

3. Editor: Everyone who used Drupal 7 will knows that installation of CKEditor was taking time. So in Drupal 8, it has inbuilt CKEditor available. So this will also save your time.

4. Multilingual: In Drupal 7, to make a site multilingual it was required various modules and separate configurations in it. The best part with Drupal 8 is that due to Symphony and its component translations all the language related modules like language, translation etc in core with installation. This will make language configuration easier.

5. Template engine: In Drupal 7, we use Php 7’s default template option and after that we create various templates by writing Php code. But with Drupal 8, Twig is introduced as a template engine. Twig comes with Symphony and it’s a Php based template engine. So overall theming experience will be more organized and improved with this. Along with this Drupal 8 uses breakpoint media queries which helps and save time to make site responsive across multiple platforms.

6. Performance: When you will install Drupal 8, then you can feel bit slow in comparison to Drupal 7 fresh installation. But if you can use caching like Nginx, Varnish etc then you will see the real power of Drupal 8. In comparison to Drupal 7, Drupal 8 is combination of heavy modules and lass with extensive caching. So to use it properly you need to configure the server and application properly.

7. REST API: Drupal 7 don’t provide option to use REST APIs yet where in Drupal 8 you can easily use REST to create interaction with other applications for modification, adding resources.

8. Community: Drupal 7 modules, developers and community are much stronger than Drupal 8 and reason behind this is Drupal 8 is comparatively new. So there may be a chance that you can get results, and support bit slow in comparison to Drupal 7.

So what’s best for you?

Both are strong in terms of usability and features. But if you will see in terms of performance and new design features then you can say that Drupal 8 has more advantages than Drupal 7. Still if you think you need some consultation then you can drop us a line at contact@lucidsoftech.com and book a free consultation today. Our expert Drupal developers will help you to decide the best option for your business and project.